AI Enthusiasm in Public Sector Remains Far Ahead of Governance

AUSTIN, Texas — September 22, 2026 — SolarWinds, a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software, today released its latest public sector report: “Racing to Deploy: How Public Sector AI Adoption is Moving Faster Than the Foundations Needed to Support It.” The study analyzes how today’s public sector organizations are navigating the reality of AI throughout IT workflows. This report, which surveyed more than 800+ public sector IT pros from the U.S. and U.K., revealed agencies are largely misjudging their level of AI governance as the technology permeates their organization.

Behind the Governance Curve

According to the report, many agencies are overestimating their level of AI governance. While approximately 9 in 10 IT leaders say governance is on pace with or ahead of AI adoption, only 10% have the three pillars necessary to ensure safe and effective AI deployment. Those pillars include:

• A formal, enforced framework
• Consistent employee adherence
• AI-specific security policies

Employee adherence and AI-specific security policies are specific areas in which public sector IT teams are falling behind. 47% of respondents say they monitor employee use of AI tools, but the monitoring is inconsistent. Inconsistent monitoring can become a breeding ground for shadow AI use, data leakage, and unvetted third-party risk.

This risk exists while public sector IT leaders acknowledge gaps in security for AI-powered work. According to the data, 44% of respondents reported AI-related security incidents rising year-over-year, and 10% aren't tracking incident volume at all. Furthermore, while security and compliance concerns ranked as the No. 1 blocker to AI adoption, respondents said they deliberately loosen security controls so AI-powered work can move faster.

"Confidence in AI governance is running well ahead of the actual controls agencies have in place, and that gap is where risk quietly accumulates,” said Travis Galloway, Senior Advisor, Government Affairs at SolarWinds. “Closing it isn't about slowing AI adoption down — it's about giving agencies the visibility and enforcement tools to govern with the same confidence they already claim to have. That's the problem we are working to solve with them every day."

Gaps in Supporting Operational Resilience Amidst a Growing Workforce

This governance gap isn't isolated to AI. Similar blind spots persist across operational visibility and cybersecurity resilience more broadly, even as public sector agencies invest more heavily in their IT and security teams than ever before.

Operational resilience continues to hold extreme importance for public sector IT teams, as extended system outages carry with them major consequences for public infrastructure. IT leaders acknowledged a shortfall in visibility, a core tenet in building this resilience. Less than half (48%) of respondents with OT in their environments say it's fully integrated with their IT monitoring, a critical infrastructure blind spot with direct implications for ransomware and outage risk in water, power, and transit systems.

Zero Trust, a best practice for IT teams looking to build resilient systems, also represents a deficit for public sector IT leaders. About 1 in 3 (36%) of IT leaders say they have zero trust in place across most of their environment, but there are gaps. Simultaneously, lack of skilled staff and complexity of implementation each account for 40% of the biggest barriers to Zero Trust adoption.

That skills gap persists even as public sector IT teams grow. The majority of teams have increased headcount (53%) and budgets (58%), driven largely by cybersecurity priorities (64%) and rising AI adoption (47%). Yet this investment has not fully closed the gap in specialized AI and security expertise needed to operationalize practices like Zero Trust, underscoring that funding alone isn't solving the governance and skills shortfall.

As AI adoption accelerates across the public sector, closing the gap between perceived and actual governance, not simply adding headcount or budget, will determine whether agencies can innovate safely without compromising the systems the public depends on.

For the full “Racing to Deploy: How Public Sector AI Adoption is Moving Faster Than the Foundations Needed to Support It” report, visit here.

For more information on SolarWinds Public Sector offerings, visit here.

Connect with SolarWinds

• THWACK^®
• LinkedIn^®
• YouTube^®
• Facebook^®
• Threads^®

About SolarWinds

SolarWinds is a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with a comprehensive and unified view of today’s modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs) to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available hybrid IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers’ needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.

The SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design, Orion, and THWACK trademarks are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos may be common law marks or are registered or pending registration. All other trademarks mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of (and may be registered trademarks of) their respective companies.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future product plans and development efforts. SolarWinds considers various features and functionality prior to any final generally available release. Information in this press release regarding future features and functionality is not and should not be interpreted as a commitment from SolarWinds that it will deliver any specific feature or functionality in the future or, if it delivers such feature or functionality, any time frame when that feature or functionality will be delivered. All information is based upon current product interests, and product plans and priorities can change at any time. SolarWinds undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements regarding future product plans and development efforts if product plans or priorities change.

© 2026 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.